


grit your teeth (and smile)

by kattenprinsen



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, No Proofreading We Die Like Men, Non Canon Sakura Haruno Parents, tags will be added as they apply
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2019-06-19 22:31:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15520059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kattenprinsen/pseuds/kattenprinsen
Summary: Sakura is an immigrant. Her father is an immigrant too.





	1. It begins

**Author's Note:**

> The chapters are alternated between the love story of Sakura's parents and Sakura's life.

 

Sakura hears the story of how her parents met a hundred times as a child. It’s her favorite bedtime story, her favorite fairy tale, and she begs her dad to tell it to her  over and over. He always agrees, laughing and asking if she hasn’t grown tired of it already. She never will, and says so while tugging on her dad’s hands, trying to drag him to her room so she can go to bed already.   


Her dad always waits until she's snuggled under soft blue covers before he begins, waits until eager eyes turn to look at him expectantly. And then, he begins.

* * *

 

It starts with Rin, beautiful and cold heiress of Iron merchant empire, the Haruno clan.

 

It starts with Issho, kind-hearted and gentle black sheep of a clan of blood-thirsty Mist swordsmen, the Hoshigaki.

 

It starts with a man falling in love at first sight with a woman organizing food trade routes to supply entire villages, without asking for anything in return.

 

Issho watches Rin give, and give, and give, and while he see that she asks for nothing, he also sees her accept what’s offered. She’s a woman who understands human nature, the need to repay someone. There’s a sort of kindness in what she does, he finds, that is rare to find in a merchant. She does this, helping villages recover from disaster, not because it expands her family's trade, but because she likes to help people. He can’t help but find it charming.

 

Rin watches Issho organize housing for those who can’t find it, can’t afford it. She watches his defend the people who can’t defend themselves, whether it’s by helping a young girl with violently shaking hands buy groceries, defending a waitress from drunks, or slaughtering bandits attacking the caravans. He’s a good man, she decides, watching him coax a sniffling child into drinking tea he bought them.

 

They grow closer, working together, and learn more and more about each other. They learn about the people behind the masks, the masks of heiress and swordsman. It doesn’t take long for the two of them to start spending evenings together, quiet and calm, drinking tea on the back porch or taking walks together. Issho makes Rin laugh so hard she cries, and she adores him for it. Rin listens to Issho, drawing him into complex conversation and coaxing him into sharing his intellect with her.

 

It’s one of these evenings that Rin receives a missive from her father. One of her cousins who married into a Konohan clan has written to him, Konoha is struggling with the war. Supplies are low and they desperately need a new trade contract, it’s the perfect opportunity for the Harunos. Rin places the letter on the porch next to her, and slowly sips her tea. Issho glances at her from the yard where he’s been practicing katas.

 

“Bad news from your family, hime-sama?” His smile is wide, showing his teeth, but she can see the worry in his expression. She smiles, and instead of answering, takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. There’s a shifting of fabric, and the gentle slide of metal that means Issho has sheathed his sword, and she hears him slowly walk over to the porch. When she opens her eyes and turns to him, his expression is one of reverent awe, and her heart skips a beat. 

 

Issho makes her feel both powerful and treasured with one look, like something precious you want to touch and cherish. Issho makes Rin feel like she could take on the entire country, the world even, with him by her side. She doesn’t want to give him up.

 

“An opportunity, actually. My Father asks that I to go to the Leaf, assist them as we’ve assisted many here.” She wants to brings him with her, wants to keep this man with his rough hands and soft heart. But most of all, she reflects, watching his face flicker at her words, she wants him to want to be kept. The faint disappointment, regret, she sees flash through his eyes feels like an early goodbye, feels like a sinking heart and the phantom sting of tears. She wants to keep him. She wants, and wants, and  _ wants. _ She wants him to come  _ with _ her.

 

But he can’t. She can see it in his face. In the way his shoulders drooped ever so slightly, in the way his knuckles turned white on the handle of his sword.    
  


He can’t, because her soft, wonderful man is a missing nin.


	2. pilgrim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ino makes a cool new friend.

Sakura is an immigrant. Her father is an immigrant too.

Actually, Ino reflects on what she overheard from her dad’s conversation, Hoshigaki Issho is an asylumed-nin, which is _different_. If her dad’s gossip is to be believed, _which of course it is, this is_ **_her_ ** _dad_ , then her new friend Sakura’s dad used to be a missing-nin from Mist.

Which is super cool and also a little scary. Or at least, it would be a little scary if Ino’s first impression of Hoshigaki Issho hadn’t been the giant man cooing ridiculously at his slip of a daughter as she lovingly ditched him at the academy gate for her first day of class.

Sakura’s dad, a giant redheaded man with a grin filled with the sharpest teeth Ino has ever seen, is open and friendly. Ino is used to seeing older shinobi wear masks, literal and not, over their emotions, but Hoshigaki-san doesn’t seem to care about people reading him. He wears his heart on his sleeve, his emotions an open book for all to see.

It's easy to see how happy he is for his daughter's first day at school, his slight sadness that she's growing up, the minor irritation brought on by the dirty looks they get for their teeth. (A Mist trait apparently, and suddenly Ino wonders about the history of the kids with sharp, sharp teeth in the younger years. Suddenly Ino is mad about the way they get picked on for it in ways she never thought about before.) It’s something Ino really likes about him. It’s clear to see how much he adores his family, enough that he would pledge himself to Konoha to give them a home.

Sakura was six when they moved to Konoha, seven now. She’s two years past the age children are supposed to enter the academy, and she told Ino about how she was made to take special tests to assess her abilities before class placement.

(She doesn’t tell Ino about the instructor’s fights with her parents, trying to get them to let her be placed in a higher level class, with older students and a closer graduation date. She doesn’t tell Ino about how her mother put her foot down with the confidence and authority of a person who is used to being obeyed, doesn’t tell Ino about her father looming behind her mother, grinning at the instructors with bared teeth, a silent and deeply unsubtle threat. Their daughter is _talented_ , they’ve been teaching her for years, she grew up doing katas in both clans styles. But, she needs friends. Needs socialization with children her age who aren't family.)

  
Ino likes that she gets to help Sakura catch up in the Konoha academy taijutsu style, likes that she feels _needed,_ and less like she just latched onto Sakura on that first day out of curiosity. Call her selfish, but Ino wants to keep Sakura forever and ever, and being needed is a nice way to elbow her way into her friends life. With the sheer amount of time Sakura insists on devoting to taijutsu, they’ll be best friends in no time!

  
(Sakura isn’t supposed to use Mist taijutsu, even though there are other children of Mist immigrants at the academy who do. She’s a special case, there to represent not just herself but also her dad as a swordsman of the Mist and the entire Haruno Clan. Sakura strives for perfection. She thinks of how hard her parents have worked for this, this life and this family, thinks of her clan cousins who work themselves to the bone trying to prove themselves and swears to herself to be the _best_ for them. She turns to Ino with a wide grin and asks if they can practice again after school.)

(Ino can't help but wonder where Sakura's mother is. She's never mentioned her mother, and Ino has only ever seen her dad around. She's worried it's too soon in their friendship to ask.)


	3. the beginning, part two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A future taking shape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i struggled hard with this because i had to balance my love of details with the fact this is a bedtime story for a child lmao  
> thank you all for your comments!! they helped inspired me a lot<33

Rin goes to Konoha alone. 

 

She packs up her things, gives a last lingering kiss to Issho, and calls her retainers back to her. 

 

Rin goes to Konoha alone, even though it’s the last thing her heart wants, because she’s a Haruno. The heiress of the clan. She has a responsibility to her people, and as much as she  _ wants _ , Issho isn’t part of the clan yet. 

 

It’s only a matter of time.

 

Until then, she heads to Konoha, mentally donning the veil of ruthlessness needed when negotiating trade with military villages. 

 

It’s time to live up to her name.

 

\--------------

Issho is waiting at their agreed meeting place, and has been for several weeks. The locals are starting to know him as a helpful man waiting for his love to call for him. 

 

Rin sweeps into town with an air of nobility, but the sure steps of someone who is so close to being home. She’s been in Konoha for months, the stretch of time feeling longer than it really was because of politics, but she arrives successful.

 

Their reunion is only witnessed by a villager by chance, but it brings her to tears with its tenderness. Even if they wanted to, there’s no denying their love. The once in a lifetime connection that so many people dream of, but never get to have. It’s lovely.

 

The entire town knows that Issho’s love came for him within hours. 

 

\--------------

While they stay in that little village for several days, catching up, they soon leave.

 

Rin may have just done the impossible, obtained exclusive trading rights in Konoha for her clan, but as far as she’s concerned her true work is never done. Issho, supporting her in her vision, packs his bag and is ready to travel before nightfall.

 

They head to Water Country. There’s a part of Issho that misses home, misses the familiarity that comes with being surrounded in the things you grew up with, and while he’s content ignoring that part of him, Rin is not.

 

Besides, it’s not hard to find villages to assist.

 

Rin, with Issho acting as confidante and bodyguard, moves from village to village, town to town, linking them together. She uses the skills her family gave her, organizing local trade connections and even outsourcing a few to bigger cities in Water. 

 

She can’t fix everything, does not have the arrogance to try, but she does what she can to help homes flourish. To help futures.

 

And then she misses a cycle.

 

\--------------

They marry in a quiet town in Water, with wildflowers and ferns beginning to emerge. 

 

Then they make the journey to Iron, and Rin begins the somewhat frightening task of introducing her clan, her family, to the man she intends to keep for as long as she can. Ideally, forever.

 

There is, of course, backlash from some of the clan. Those who hoped to marry in to the main branch, or those who feel their shared bloodline too good for their hime to marry a missing nin, but they all pale in the face of the Haruno patriarch. 

 

Rin’s father greets them at the entrance to the main house, face an expressionless mask. Rin meets his eyes and lifts her chin, she won’t be shamed for her choice, not here. Her father holds her gaze for several moments, then shifts his attention to her husband. 

 

Issho is nervous, but does not show it. He knows how much family means to his incredible wife, and while he knows their union is something she would not abandon, he still wants her father’s approval. 

 

Somehow, he has it.

 

\--------------

They marry in the capital city of Iron, in the height of summer. 

 

Rin has been pregnant for only a few months, and any evidence of their child, of the next heir, is hidden away under layers of silk and embroidery.

 

The ceremony is a traditional one, though not one Issho is familiar with, and while it’s tedious to wait through the speeches, to be put on display for not just the whole clan, but the other notable clans of Iron, it’s worth it.

 

They have been married for several months but this, this is protection. 

After all, missing nin Hoshigaki Issho, former Terror of the Mist, cannot possibly be Haruno Issho, the gentle and doting husband of the Haruno merchant clan’s heiress.

 

After the ceremony, after greeting every guest and thanking them, Rin’s father leads them to a house. It’s beautiful, and obviously built with Rin in mind. Rin sweeps in with the familiarity of someone who helped design the place, but as Issho follows, his father-in-law stops him.

 

Issho turns his attention to Haruno Hideki, and the man reaches up and cups Issho’s face with worn hand. Issho is thrown by the affection, at first, but Hideki just smiles warmly and welcomes him to the family.


	4. anxiety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first time Sasuke doesn’t show up to their daily training, Kakashi sighs and sends Naruto and Sakura scampering off to find him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm riding that sweet sweet posting high so have another chapter

The first time Sasuke doesn’t show up to their daily training, Kakashi sighs and sends Naruto and Sakura scampering off to find him. It’s out of character for the Uchiha to miss training, but it’s always likely that the little fool overdid the intensive training he thinks nobody knows he does every morning.  

When they still haven’t returned exactly twenty minutes later, Kakashi puts his book away and reaches out with his chakra until he feels his wayward student’s signatures. His brow furrows slightly when he realizes all three are tucked away into the corner of the Uchiha Compound, but only Sasuke’s signature seems distressed, and even that is swiftly decreasing.

Kakashi considers interrupting his student’s apparent bonding, but in the end settles back into the tree he’s been lounging in and pulls his book back out.

Sakura and Naruto spend the rest of the day with Sasuke sandwiched between them, bundled in comfortable quits from Sakura’s house and plied with tea from Haruno Rin’s stash. Naruto leaves for roughly 10 minutes and comes sprinting back with an overflowing armful of discount manga that Sakura and Sasuke have never heard of. They don’t talk about Sasuke’s panic attack.

 

The second time Sasuke doesn’t show up to their daily training, Sakura and Naruto notice early enough that Kakashi hasn’t showed up yet, or at least is pretending he hasn’t, they aren’t quite sure yet. As the minutes tick by Sasuke’s usual arrival, they exchange a Look, and take off. Sakura stops by her house to grab the lightweight spring blankets from her room, and to ask her father for an anti-anxiety tea blend. Naruto grabs the box of manga he’s started keeping at the end of his bed, and throws an armful of ramen in while he’s at it. He considers bringing Sasuke a plant, but something tells him  _ not yet, it’s not time yet _ so he just secures the box in his arms and takes off for Sasuke’s in a sprint. 

  
They meet up at the gates to the Uchiha Compound, and by now they know Sasuke well enough to know to head to the line of houses closest to the edge of the compound, and furthest from the main house. Sasuke’s chosen residence has a beautifully arranged, if somewhat overgrown, garden that Naruto longs to linger in, but they have more important priorities right now.   
Sakura bounds up the front steps, and somehow manages to knock on the door frame without dropping the, in Naruto’s opinion, truly ridiculous pile of blankets she’s carrying. Her voice is soft when she calls out to their teammate, letting him know who they are and that they’re coming in.

Once they’re inside, Naruto sets his box on a low table and takes Sakura’s blanket bundle, jerking his head towards the bathroom, where he can smell Sasuke ( _ ash and steel and healing cuts _ ). She gives him a nod, and with all the grace of the heiress she was trained to be, barges into Sasuke’s bathroom. 

Naruto waits until he hears Sasuke’s indignant yelp, followed shortly by the distinctive sounds of Sakura mother-henning him into compliance, until he starts arranging the blankets into a comfy nest on the couch. He finishes just in time for a puffy-eyed Sasuke to sulkily storm into the room, and Naruto grins at him and waves the next issue of the manga Sasuke had been reading the last time this happened. 

“Check out what jus’ came out this week, Bastard! Ain’tcha lucky I’m so thoughtful and picked it up for ya?”

Sasuke sniffs imperiously at Naruto’s roughshod dialect, but yanks Naruto down with him to settle into the couch. Naruto huffs out a silent laugh, and passes over the book. Relaxing back into the couch after choosing his own manga, Naruto has to hide his smile behind it as he feels Sasuke relax against him. The blankets around them are soft and smell like something floral, and they can hear Sakura humming in the kitchen as she boils water for tea. The room feels safe and homely, and Naruto can’t help but be smug that it’s  _ them _ that make Sasuke feel safe enough to stop overthinking these days.    



End file.
